Can anyone provide me with some information on it? To what extent was it a state vassal, to what extent a private entity, whether its actions were justifiable &c.
I found some interesting-looking articles, but nothing free:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7162(198807)498<11%3APSAR>2.0.CO%3B2-G
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-246X(198603)29%3A1<87%3APDAALD>2.0.CO%3B2-W
All of what I have read on the Pinkerton Agency, which is not a scholarly butt-load I admit, has led me to conclude they were like just about any other agency or business. A mixed bag. Taking advantage of state priveledge and emplyed by private individuals and organizations. They were eventually restructered and I believe renamed and then bought ought by Securitas which last I checked is the largest provider of private security in the world.
The Pinkerton name is still around. When I worked for Compaq in the 90’s all the security guards were Pinkertons.
Must have been a considerable extent. There was actually an Anti-Pinkerton Act passed by Congress in 1893 forbidding Pinkerton employees from working for the US government.
There is a Wiki article about them.
Oh come on, is this all you got? Statists love this stuff because they see it as evidence that more govt is ideal, and this is all you could come up in defense? Please, give me more than this.